Decision to Dismiss McChrystal Came Swiftly

By

Jonathan Weisman

Updated June 24, 2010 12:01 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama relieved Gen. Stanley McChrystal of his command of international forces in Afghanistan Wednesday with relatively little deliberation and a stern warning to his national security team: The time for dissent is over.

Less than 40 hours had passed between the time Mr. Obama read the Rolling Stone article, "The Runaway General," on Monday night and the moment he met that general for a private Oval Office meeting Wednesday morning.

President Obama named Gen. Petraeus, the architect of the surge of troops into Iraq, to replace Gen. McChrystal as commander of all U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Also, Jon Hilsenrath analyzes the Fed's latest rate decision, which was more cautious about U.S. growth.

President Obama announces his acceptance of General Stanley McChrystal's resignation.

The president asked Gen. McChrystal to explain statements by him and his aides casually mocking the vice president as a nobody, National Security Adviser James Jones as a "clown" and the president himself as uncomfortable with military leaders and initially unengaged on defense policy.

He then accepted the general's resignation and ended the meeting, less than a half hour after it began. Just hours later, Mr. Obama named Gen. McChrystal's immediate superior, Gen. David Petraeus, to take over the Afghan war effort.

"This mission demands unity of effort across our alliance and across my national security team. And I don't think that we can sustain that unity of effort and achieve our objectives in Afghanistan without making this change," he said in the Rose Garden three hours later.

"I strongly support the president's strategy in Afghanistan and am deeply committed to our coalition forces, our partner nations, and the Afghan people," Gen. McChrystal said in a statement. "It was out of respect for this commitment—and a desire to see the mission succeed—that I tendered my resignation."

The furor that erupted over the Rolling Stone story put Mr. Obama in a difficult position. A chorus of advisers said leaving Gen. McChrystal in command would be seen as a sign of presidential weakness, according to administration officials. It could send a signal of tolerance for dissent and even insubordination, advisers said.

But as one of the military's foremost experts on counterinsurgency and the strategy of flooding a war-ravaged country with troops tasked to protect civilians against guerrilla forces, Gen. McChrystal embodied the president's war policy. Afghan President Hamid Karzai expressed strong support for the general, who also had advocates in neighboring Pakistan.

ENLARGE

Gen. McChrystal arrives at the White House Wednesday morning for his brief meeting with President Obama, who accepted his resignation.
Reuters

For a president famous for extended deliberations, the decisions on Gens. McChrystal and Petraeus were uncharacteristically swift. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, tipped off by press aide Tommy Vietor, had brought the article to the president in the White House residence on Monday night. After Mr. Obama had glanced at the first few paragraphs, Mr. Gibbs said, the visibly angry president called a meeting in the Oval Office that night with Gen. Jones, Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, White House adviser David Axelrod and top National Security Council aides.

At that first meeting, the possibility of dismissing Gen. McChrystal came up, a senior administration official said. The idea was raised again in a private White House meeting Tuesday with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, the official said.

The official said Mr. Obama didn't take great offense in the comments about him, which were relatively mild, saying he appeared uncomfortable in his first meeting with senior military officers and didn't seem to know who Gen. McChrystal was in their first meeting.

"If you're in public life, you're going to be called much worse than that," the official said.

But the insults leveled at the vice president and Mr. Jones were serious. There was concern about how allies, already wearying of the war effort, would read the article, and that lower-ranking officers and rank-and-file service members would see a slap on the wrist as a breakdown in the application of the military code of conduct.

McChrystal in the Field

Gen. McChrystal made frequent visits to Afghanistan.

Manan Vatsyayana/AFP/Getty Images

On McChrystal's Watch

Who's in Charge?

Gen. McChrystal left the Oval Office alone. A few minutes later, Mr. Obama met with Messrs. Biden, Emanuel, Jones, Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to discuss the decision and the appointment of Gen. Petraeus.

Mr. Obama said that code "applies equally to newly enlisted privates and to the general officer who commands them."

Mr. Obama then met privately for 40 minutes with Gen. Petraeus, who was in Washington for the monthly meeting of the Afghanistan war council.

The war council meeting, usually a protracted affair, was brief. Aides described Mr. Obama's tone as stern as he chided his team for "pettiness" and personality clashes. After only a half hour, he ended the meeting, saying a more extended discussion would be rescheduled. He called Mr. Karzai, Sens. Harry Reid, Carl Levin and John McCain to discuss a swift confirmation of Gen. Petraeus, then went to the Rose Garden.

The president lauded Gen. McChrystal as "one of our nation's finest soldiers," but said the conduct shown in the Rolling Stone article did "not meet the standard that should be set by a commanding general."

Mr. Obama said his decision didn't reflect "any sense of personal insult" or disagreement over policy in the conduct of the war in Afghanistan. But the callous bravado shown in the article "undermines the civilian control of the military that is at the core of our democratic system, and it erodes the trust that's necessary for our team to work together to achieve our objectives in Afghanistan," he said in the Rose Garden.

"Our nation is at war," Mr. Obama said. "We face a very tough fight in Afghanistan. But Americans don't flinch in the face of difficult truths or difficult tasks. We persist and we persevere."

By turning to Gen. Petraeus to take over command, the president signaled continuity in war strategy. Gen. Petraeus crafted the Army counterinsurgency strategy and led the surge of U.S. forces into Iraq in 2007. As head of Central Command, he was Gen. McChrystal's commanding officer.

Pending Gen. Petraeus's confirmation by the Senate, which could happen by next week, the British deputy commander of international forces in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. Nick Parker, has assumed command. British Prime Minister David Cameron told Mr. Obama in a Wednesday phone conversation the mission in Afghanistan "would not miss a beat" during the interim, a Cameron spokesman said.

In the U.K., the second largest contributor of troops to Afghanistan, Gen. McChrystal was popular both with troops and defense secretary Liam Fox. After the announcement that Gen. Petraeus had been selected to lead the war effort, "a sigh of relief could almost be heard throughout" the U.K.'s Ministry of Defence, one British official said.

In the U.S. Gen. Petraeus's success in Iraq has made him something of a hero with congressional leaders in both parties. "He deserves great credit for his leadership in helping to stabilize Iraq and bring it to a critical transition point this summer," said House Minority Leader John Boehner. "I believe he is the right person take over this command."

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